Thanks for the feedback :) It took us a very long time to figure out what to feed her. We were feeding her "normal horse" amounts and nothing was happening. We wormed her several times, but nothing was changing. After talking with our vet, we decided on a feed plan to help her gain weight.

Since she is getting a lot of exercise, and has a high metabolism, she isn't an easy keeper. We were worried about so much grain and causing stomach problems like ulcers. Our vet said that she would be fine as long as she is getting free choice hay (which she is). We hope to try to wean her off of all of that grain when the weather warms up, but until then, she needs that amount of food to maintain her weight. I wish there was an easier way beacause that food costs a lot of money!

Too much grain doesn't cause ulcers, but if much starch passes through the small intestine into the large intestine it starts to kill off the fibre digesting bacteria and that releases toxins that lead to all kinds of problems.. that's why nutritionists suggest feeding more high fibre and protein diet than starch and sugars. well, as long as she is fine and there are no changes in her health and hooves, it could be okey but you should keep an eye on the fact that she still eats more at least 50% of her daily food weight in hay, even for working racehorses they still eat 50% hay and the rest is fast energy release food - grain. Horses in less work than racehorses should have at least 70% hay consumption of their daily dose.
Tbh, I have never seen too many fat TBs and she looks ok, lean but getting there.. its just the lack of muscle on her neck that bothers my eyes at the moment.. overall she looks good.. so you are on the right track.

I think she's over at the knee a bit in the back, and the front is noticeably base narrow. All that will make clean, untangled movement harder for her naturally; which makes me wonder if horses that burn energy quick without being put into what is considered strenuous work, are expending more energy to move neatly than another horse with better conformation... [<--- I think I just found my new research project, thank you very much!]

He doesnt look chubby :P
Well.. as you said, that mare has fast metabolism.. horse digestive systems vary. And it is said that any horse that is not competing even at lower level competitions does not need grain supplements - they will just store than energy in fat. (meaning the amount of work that is needed to compete in any discipline at low levels)
Some horses will be fat on just plain hay or grass.. they just are like that. same as others wont put on weight, just saying that grain can be dangerous.. :P

on a side note, im way too scared to stand on a horse like that.. i guess I havent found the one I can trust the most.

Ash is a good boy for letting me stand on him like that, but of course- when I showed my friends what I figured out how to do, he staterd bucking lol that one hurt...

TerciopeladoCaballo- Let me know what you find out- that sounds interesting! And... Does your name mean Velvet Horse? I'm taking Spanish and I was really excited that I understood that lol :) I'll try to get a video of her moving. She does wear front boots to prevent cuts, but most horses at my barn do.

Ash is a good boy for letting me stand on him like that, but of course- when I showed my friends what I figured out how to do, he staterd bucking lol that one hurt...

TerciopeladoCaballo- Let me know what you find out- that sounds interesting! And... Does your name mean Velvet Horse? I'm taking Spanish and I was really excited that I understood that lol :) I'll try to get a video of her moving. She does wear front boots to prevent cuts, but most horses at my barn do.

Yes it does mean Velvet Horse ;) My father and uncle spoke Spanish when I was a young child, I've been speaking Spanish for about 3 consecutive years, not counting the fragments like "Ve!" we would speak to each other throughout life. Funny thing is, I'm Austrian and Irish, but only my older relatives speak those native languages.

So far I've only come up with my hypothesis (horses with subpar conformation will burn more energy than horses with average or excellent conformation), about 20 test subjects, and two ways to gauge the horse's efforts; amount of sweat directly after a workout, and how many pounds/quarts/etc. of forage and/or grain the horse needs to affect its weight. I couldn't use most neighboring horses because they are increasing or decreasing their training regimes. If anyone else wants to give me some data, awesome! Basically, the horse has to be working at a constant intensity and frequency, and be fed the same amount/type of food for a week at least, and I need to know what faults it has in conformation and how severe those faults are, as well as the horse's height, age, and weight, what they do for exercise, how often, how long. I'm trying to find lesson stables to use for data, because the horses tend to be worked on a common schedule among each other.

I have my lumpy 12yo, 15.2hh mare's status off the top of my head; she is considered an easy keeper, has cow hocks to about a 45% severity, 68% steep shoulder, croup 10% higher than withers, gets 2 quarts of 10% protein grain pellet daily with 3 flakes T&A hay + 4 flakes Coastal hay a day and some nibblings Bahia grass for this winter. I take advantage of the colder months to help keep her thin rather than fleshy, as once the warm weather hits and the grass grows, she smacks on the fat like you've never seen a horse gain; all around the thighs and shoulder, too O_o

Here is a video of her movement from tonight. Do you guys see a few off steps around 10 seconds? I thought I saw some in the video, but didn't feel it when I was riding. I checked her legs and she was fine and she trotted sound in the aisle. Maybe I'm just being paranoid because my gelding has been lame for 2+ weeks (hoping it's not navicular)

We had just finished jumping and I was cooling her off. This is not even close to our best dressage and she was tired and wanted to walk, but you can see how she could be pretty floaty if she had more energy.

She looks good so far :)
I'd kill for your seat ._. With the ridiculous cold snap and untimely vacation, my mare's been gnarly to ride; it's definately harder to keep a good balance and contact on a horse that is having its own issues to sort... could your gelding have bone spavin? I've been finding I'm not alone, quite a few other neighbors have horses with this form of arthritis in the hocks/knees, and they're all younger than 18yo. I'm sore as heck trying to be of help to my girl during a ride, I'm taking the cop out; switching to in-hand and ground work til my calf sores heal and the cold snap is done >_<
Use MSM on your gelding My neighbors and myself swear by its anti-inflammatory effects.

The vet will be out tomorrow to take X-rays and also do spring shots (We are supposed to get a foot of snow on Wednesday THAT'S NOT SPRING!) Either she can find the abcess and take care of it, or we can rule out any sort of bone chips and stuff like that. It's just really wierd lameness where he's fine for a few minutes and then he's lame again. He isn't even 16 yet, but does have some bad joint problems. This is definitley in the hoof because some days it's hot. I have a thread on here about it. And the only reason I can ride bareback like that is because I rode for 2 months without a saddle before we got one that actually fit. I guess it actually paid off :)

Did you see the chesnut mare limping at all or was it just my imagination?

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